Donald Trump says he may end up having a bad relationship with British Prime Minister David Cameron after he called the presumptive Republican presidential nominee "divisive, stupid and wrong" for proposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.
"It looks like we are not going to have a very good relationship, who knows?" Trump told Britain's ITV network Monday. "I hope to have a good relationship with him, but it sounds like he is not willing to address the problem either."
Cameron denounced Trump's stance on Muslims entering the U.S. last December, with Trump offering his proposal after terrorist attacks by Muslims killed 130 people in Paris and 14 in San Bernardino, California.
"Well, number one, I'm not stupid, OK? I can tell you that right now," Trump said. "Just the opposite. Number two, in terms of divisive, I don't think I'm a divisive person. I'm a unifier, unlike our president now, I'm a unifier."
A 'special relationship'
Britain and the United States have what they call a "special relationship," but Cameron's office Monday refused to retract his earlier comments about Trump. The British leader has said that anyone who wins a major political party presidential nomination in the United States deserves "respect."
Trump surged to the top of the crowded Republican presidential field with his call for the Muslim ban, an idea he lately has been calling a "suggestion," and plans to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. and to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to halt the stream of immigrants entering the country.
The brash Trump, a real estate billionaire making his first run for elected office, rejected claims that he is anti-Muslim.
"Absolutely not. I am anti-terror," he said.
London new Muslim mayor
In the interview, he also attacked London's new mayor, Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim elected to run a Western capital city.
Khan branded Trump as "ignorant" on Islam and said he hopes he loses the U.S. election against his likely Democratic opponent, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Trump said he was offended by Khan's comments.
"I think they were very rude statements and, frankly, tell him I will remember those statements. They are very nasty statements," Trump said. "When he won I wished him well. Now, I don't care about him."
A Khan spokesman on Monday again described Trump's views as "ignorant, divisive and dangerous. It's the politics of fear at its worst and will be rejected at the ballot box."
